Daddyhunt Blog Posts from November 2008

What's not to like about Björn Borg? One of the world's greatest tennis pros, a massive success as a fashion guru with his own label -- that was launched in his native Sweden with a campaign to "Fuck for the Future" -- a very serious daddy-hottie now that time has added a bit of stately definition to his boyish face, and now an international internet dating guru.

But not just any internet dating guru. Björn just launched his new site with a campaign that's pretty much guaranteed to bring a smile to your face -- unless, that is, you happen to think a commercial featuring two priests getting married to the tagline "love for all" isn't fantastic ... or at least damned funny.

Bravo, Björn, you've shown you can serve affection and respect with grace and style.

The movie "MILK" uses the framing device of Harvey Milk making a tape to be played in the event of his death by assassination. The following short film is called "575 Castro St" directed by Jenni Olson. It has a series of static video shots of Harvey's old camera shop (as it was recreated for "MILK") with an edited down version of the original 13 minute tape. I had heard of this tape on a few occasions, so I was intrigued when a friend sent me the link to this. You can see the director's notes here.

Those of us 50 or older have seen fitness trends come and go. I, for one, used to jog the entire length of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in the late 70s (about five miles). When I moved back to Los Angeles in 1980, I started training for 5K and 10K races in Griffith Park. Jogging morphed into running, and then aerobics in all its various forms consumed the fitness world. It is fitting that so many have devoted so much time to cardio-vascular training as these heart-pumping exercises form the base of the fitness triangle, with weight training and flexibility training as the other two sides. Nevertheless, motivating ourselves to do these often-repetitive (i.e. boring) exercises can be a challenge, despite loads of studies showing how regular aerobic exercise can reverse or reduce the risk of heart disease and Type II diabetes, lower blood pressure, eliminate unwanted body fat, lift our spirits, and even keep Mr. Happy perky.

Our understanding of how best to perform cardio, as we’re calling it now, has changed as we’ve learned more about the human body’s response to different kinds and different styles of cardio training. Joggers and runners, for example, discovered that running on hard surfaces or with the wrong shoes could lead in time to join degeneration and injured tendons and ligaments, so wise runners choose their shoes and running surfaces more carefully nowadays. A visit to a store that...

In celebration of the opening of the new movie "MILK", we are excited to share this amazing piece by Steve Beery. Steve was a writer and gay activist who died of AIDS in '93. He met Harvey Milk when he was 25 years old and Harvey was 48. Harvey was a daddy who definitely appreciated younger men. This piece was provided to us by Armistead Maupin (my wonderful husband), who met Steve at Harvey's memorial service and remained his closest friend until his death.

My Month with Harvey

by Steve Beery

I was suffering from a typical San Francisco ailment – costume claustrophobia. My tights were riding up, my fake-satin cape was itchy, and beads of sweat were rolling down behind my eye mask. I was dressed as Robin the Boy Wonder at the 1978 Beaux Arts Ball, and I was being unmistakably cruised by a man I knew but had never met. The man was Harvey Milk, the first openly gay city supervisor – a man I respected and admired.

We’d smiled and nodded on Castro Street several times that year. I like Harvey’s wide-open grin, and I’d wondered whether the attraction was mutual. Now it looked like maybe it was. Nervously I straightened my cape, checked my trunks, adjusted my gloves. The supervisor, at ease in his rumpled grey suit, extended his hand and uttered the corniest pick-up line imaginable. “Hop on my back, Boy Wonder, and I...

In a word: WOW. More than 100 retired generals and admirals called Monday for repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays so they can serve openly.

According to a statement obtained by The Associated Press, the generals reportedly said it was time for the United States to join other nations in allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. "Our service members are professionals who are able to work together effectively despite differences in race, gender, religion, and sexuality."

The Obama administration is not about to make the same mistake President Clinton made in 1993 and said that repealing "dont ask, don't tell" is not really on their immediate agenda. Aubrey Sarvis, of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said that Obama sees 2009 as being about "foundation building and reaching consensus." See more on the Obama team's response here.

Sure Obama's lack of drive to send the dinosaur of "don't ask, don't tell" into extinction might -- on the surface -- be a tad disappointing but remember this: is it better to have a President rush into something, even if it might be the right thing, or approach it with skill and intelligence? "Don't ask, don't tell" is definitely on the way out, it's just Obama's considerable challenge to make its passing smooth and, most of all, lasting.

Just think, if you had been Antinous (pronounced an-tin-oh-us), you could have said, "my gay daddy is the most powerful man in the world"... and it would have been true. Many don't realize that one of the Roman Empire's greatest rulers was an openly gay man. The first time I heard about Hadrian and Antinous I was daydreaming in my Roman and Hellenistic Sculpture course in college. Professor Connelly brought up the bust of a Roman Emperor on the slide projector and I thought to myself, "hmm... he looks like a sexy bearded daddy".

Truth is, that's one of the reasons I took the course. I love all those sexy sculptures of the hot daddies. I used to drool over the Farnese Hercules and the Laocoon, and a host of other sculptures of gods, philosophers and emperors. Unlike our culture, the Greeks and Romans really celebrated an older ideal, not just youth.

The professor brought me out of my daze as she said, "Hadrian was gay and had a young lover named Antinous". Wow, a gay Roman Emperor. I knew that the Greeks and Romans were a little less uptight about gay sex, but I didn't know it was possible to have that much power as an openly gay man.

Hadrian was born on January 24 in 76 AD. After his parents died he was put under the care of Trajan who was a cousin...

Most American men around my age (over 50) attended schools in which physical education was a required part of the curriculum. This was John F. Kennedy’s innovation to education in the 60s to help young Americans get strong and stay fit physically as well as academically. The idea was that a sound foundation in physical culture acquired at an early age would create a habit of fitness to last our whole lives.

Well, it sounded good at the time.

Many of us participated in extra-curricular sports or leisure activities that involved plenty of physical exercise in those halcyon days. A few hardy souls even might have maintained that high-school weight-training routine and laps around the track into adulthood. But, most American men at some point, and for any number of seemingly good reasons, put aside regular exercise for other compelling activities like working for a living and operating the remote control on the television.

A Long Walk With a Friend is a Good Way to Start Exercising Again

Many of us may recall with a chuckle the first time we heard the saying, “Whenever I get the urge to exercise, I lie down until it goes away.” Actually, this saying is only really funny to younger men just starting to neglect themselves who do not yet experience the genuine feeling of loss that comes with diminished physical fitness and the unpleasant changes in the way we look and feel as we avoid physical exercise over time. Those of us who...

The poems in the book represent more than 20 years worth of work but in an interview about his win, Doty said it was only at this stage in his life as a mature man that he could critically put this collection together. "When I started out I did what most young poets do -- take all the poems I'd written that I could stand and put them in my first book. But more and more it's a matter of building relationships between poems, and the way that new poems get made is out of the suggestions and possibilities of what I've already done."

Sounds like a a good daddy approach to life, and one that we appreciate here at Daddyhunt.

Check out Doty's website here to learn more about him and read some of his poetry. Doty is the author of several collections of poetry and non-fiction books. He lives in New...

My husband and I had the great luck to get tickets to the premiere of the film “MILK” at a packed Castro Theater last month. The film is directed by Gus Van Sant, stars Sean Penn (as Harvey Milk) and was produced by Focus Features (producers of “Brokeback Mountain”) so we went in thinking that it wasn’t going to be a waste of two hours… and we were right.

The film chronicles the story of Harvey Milk who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming the first openly gay man elected to public office in America. Milk was murdered by Dan White in 1978.

The film focuses on the last eight years of Harvey’s life. It opens with with Milk picking up Scott Smith (James Franco), the man who would become his partner. It is the eve of Milk’s 40th birthday and he is living in New York. Shortly thereafter Milk and Smith relocate to San Francisco where Harvey begins his journey as a neighborhood activist and ultimately the first gay politician.

I felt like I went into the film knowing a lot about Harvey Milk. I had seen “The Times of Harvey Milk” and countless other documentaries about the gay movement...

Does banning same-sex marriages in California require a Constitutional Amendment or Revision? That arcane distinction may be Prop. 8 opponents' best chance to have the recent voter-approved Amendment thrown out by the courts.

The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear three cases that claim the measure abridges the civil rights of a minority group by relying on a Constitutional Amendment rather than a Constitutional Revision. The California Constitution requires an Amendment to receive a simple majority vote to pass, while a Revision requires a vote of two-thirds of the California Legislature followed by a majority vote of the citizens.

The determination as to whether an Amendment or Revision is required hinges on whether the changes are narrow or broad. Prop. 8 added only 14 words to the Constitution and advocates say it deals only with the narrow issue of defining marriage, therefore requiring only an Amendment. Opponents say is is a Revision because Prop. 8 stripped a fundamental right (marriage) from a suspect minority class (gays and Lesbians). Does your brain hurt yet? Mine does. If you want it to hurt even more, you can read the brief filed yesterday by several legal groups representing gay couples.

But that procedural distinction in California is what it might all come down to so you can bet lawyers on both...

About Age Appropriate

Age Appropriate is an interactive blog for Daddies and the men, hunters, and bears that love them. Covering everything from sex and dating to pop culture and nightlife, Age Appropriate keeps the daddy dialogue open and honest. Think of us as a daily supplement to help keep your hunt as enjoyable, entertaining, and enticing as the catch itself.